The brother of Travis Decker, the man wanted for killing his three daughters, has revealed that his sibling had been hiding a "chilling secret".
Decker, 32, vanished after the bodies of his daughters - nine-year-old Paityn, eight-year-old Evelyn, and five-year-old Olivia - were discovered on June 2 at a remote Washington campsite near Leavenworth.
The girls were with their father for a court-ordered visitation when he allegedly bound them with zip ties and placed plastic bags over their heads. Autopsies confirmed they died from suffocation.
Their bodies were found 75 to 100 yards down an embankment near the former soldier's abandoned 2017 GMC Sierra, which contained food, blankets, car seats, his wallet, and two bloody handprints.
Nearby, authorities also found male DNA and a second sample of blood not believed to be human. His dog was recovered and handed over to the Humane Society.
Now, nearly two weeks into the search, Decker’s brother Thomas has come forward to shed light on the fugitive's unraveling mental state and long-simmering tension within the family.
“The guy on the wanted poster for murdering my three nieces is not the brother I know,” Thomas said, per The Mirror. “I can't even comprehend what is going on. I am in complete shock that he would do something like this. He loves his daughters – at least I thought he did. And Whitney is devastated beyond belief.”
Thomas said he and their father once staged an intervention after learning Decker was walking away from his family during a divorce. “We had hoped to have a good conversation with him - to ask him if he needed anything, any help, financial or otherwise,” he said.
“We are family, we want to help him and see what we could do to get him back on track. But things did not go well; he tried to resort to violence because we were not supposed to be there, and we just showed up unannounced," he alleged.
Though no physical altercation took place, Thomas described the encounter as deeply unsettling.
Decker’s descent had been building, according to court filings from his ex-partner, Whitney Decker. In September, she flagged his declining mental health and asked to restrict overnight visits until he found stable housing, noting he was living out of his truck.
She later told The Seattle Times that “something broke inside of Decker,” suggesting a mental break rooted in long-held trauma. “He clearly had some sort of break and everything that he had been living with, everything that had been bottled up inside of him for so long, as far as trauma, just won out.”
Attorney Arianna Cozart, who represents the mom, said she had “no reason to suspect anything was wrong,” and that Decker had complied with the terms of visitation.
Yet his construction job supervisor recalled the man appearing “on the brink of something extreme” the day he disappeared.
The suspect, a former U.S. Army infantryman who served in Afghanistan in 2014 and later joined the Washington National Guard, is highly skilled in survival, navigation, and off-grid living.
Federal officials fear he could survive indefinitely in the rugged Cascade Range. Deputy U.S. Marshal Keegan Stanley revealed in a federal affidavit that Decker once lived off the grid for two and a half months and regularly hiked, hunted, and camped across the region.
Authorities believe he may be attempting to escape to Canada as a search of his Google accounts revealed queries such as “how does a person move to Canada,” “how to relocate to Canada,” and visits to Canada’s official job site.
His cellphone placed him at the Rock Island Campground - the site of the killings - the day before the girls were found. That campground is just 11 miles from the Pacific Crest Trail, which leads into Canada.
Hikers near Colchuck Lake in the Enchantments region recently reported seeing a lone man “ill-prepared for the conditions," The New York Post reported.
A police helicopter later spotted someone matching Decker’s description off-trail. When they approached, the man fled into the forest. Tracking dogs followed footprints to the Ingalls Creek Trailhead, but no capture has been made.
Authorities issued alerts across the region, warning residents to lock their homes and vehicles.
They also released surveillance images of Decker wearing a tan shirt with the number 59, dark shorts, and flip-flops, carrying pizza boxes. Tattoos on both arms and one ankle are visible. He is described as 5'8", with black hair and brown eyes, and considered dangerous and possibly armed.
The U.S. Marshals Service has now taken over the search and is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign for the girls’ mother has raised more than $1.2 million to support her through the unimaginable loss.